Generally, in an arrangement of a machining center, since a control board for controlling the machine occupies a larger space, it is usually arranged in the rear area of the machine and since an operation board for operating the machine by sending or receiving information to or from the control board is normally arranged in the vicinity of the right side of an operator who operates the machine, the operation board is separately positioned from the control board.
The relative arrangement of the operation board with the position of the operator is important. In a conventional machining center, a tool magazine of the tool change device for storing various tools is arranged side by side with the bed at the innermost end of the movable zone of a column which slides on a bed in a X-axis direction and is arranged in parallel with a Z-axis in which direction a table moves. Considering the operator's workability, the position of the operator is set at the opposite side of the tool magazine across the table.
In a device disclosed in a description of U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,497, in order to satisfy both requirements of an arrangement of the control board requiring a larger space and an arrangement of the operation board to be closer to the operator and preferable to be in a short distance to the control board to shorten the wiring therebetween, the control board is arranged, in parallel with the Z-axis, at the front side of the movable zone of the column which slides on the bed in the X-axis direction and the operation board is arranged at the side of the control board facing the operator.
The pallet exchanger for exchanging a pallet on which a machined workpiece is attached and a pallet on which an unmachined workpiece is attached between the table moved to the pallet exchanging position and the device for attaching/detaching the workpiece is arranged side by side with the front portion of the bed opposite to the rear portion thereof, on which the column slides. The pallet exchanger holds the pallet on which the machined workpiece is attached and the pallet on which the unmachined workpiece is attached at both sides of the exchanger arm and exchanges the pallets by rotating the exchanger arm 180 degrees around. The rotation locus of the pallet to be exchanged extends sideway of the front portion of the bed. Accordingly, for this reason, the control board is also arranged in parallel with Z-axis at the front side of the movable zone of the column which slides in the X-axis direction.